Soldaten: On Fighting, Killing, and Dying (64 page)

472.
SRX 2030, 25 October 1944, TNA, WO 208/4164.

473.
Zagovec, “Gespräche mit der ‘Volksgemeinschaft,’ ”p. 358.

474.
Meldung des OB West v. 7. 2. 1945, KTB OKW, Vol. 4/2, p. 1364.

475.
SRA 5829, 18 March 1945, TNA, WO 208/4135.

476.
For example, General von Thoma. See Neitzel,
Abgehört,
p. 33.

477.
SRM 79, 20 November 1942, TNA, WO 208/4136.

478.
SRA 5835, 22 March 1945, TNA, WO 208/4135.

479.
Cited in Ian Kershaw,
Hitler, 1936–1945
(Munich: Pantheon Verlag, 2002), p. 15.

480.
Ibid., p. 64ff.

481.
SRGG 1125, 27 January 1945, TNA, WO 208/4169.

482.
W. G. Sebald,
Luftkrieg und Literatur
(Frankfurt/Main: Eichborn, 2001), p. 110.

483.
Hans Mommsen,
Zur Geschichte Deutschlands im 20. Jahrhundert. Demokratie, Diktatur, Widerstand
(Munich: Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, 2010), p. 159ff.

484.
Saul K. Padover,
Lügendetektor: Vernehmungen im besiegten Deutschland, 1944/45
(Frankfurt/Main: Eichborn Verlag, 1999).

485.
SRA 123, 17 June 1940, TNA, WO 208/4118.

486.
SRA 200, 22 July 1940, TNA, WO 208/4118.

487.
SRA 495, 10 September 1940, TNA, WO 208/4119; SRA 554, 18 September 1940, TNA, WO 208/4119; SRA 1383, 5 March 1941, TNA, WO 208/4123.

488.
SRX 154, 17 November 1940, TNA, WO 208/4158.

489.
SRX 228, 29 March 1941, TNA, WO 208/4158.

490.
SRA 1619, 29 April 1941, TNA, WO 208/4123.

491.
SRA 3807, 10 March 1943, TNA, WO 208/4129.

492.
SRA. 4656, 23 November 1943, TNA, WO 208/4132.

493.
The story that Hitler got so angry he literally bit a carpet was spread after journalist William Shirer wrote an article about Hitler’s meeting with Neville Chamberlain on 22 September 1938. Shirer himself had only written that Hitler seemed on the verge of a nervous breakdown. But the image of Hitler as “carpet chewer” proved persistent. See Kershaw,
Hitler,
p. 169.

494.
Details like “the Führer’s beautiful hands” were part of his public image and were passed on by the media. See Kershaw,
Hitler,
p. 410. People who met him also tended to emphasize precisely those details that conformed to his public image.

495.
SRX 1167, 15 October 1942, TNA, WO 208/4161.

496.
Kershaw,
Hitler,
p. 407.

497.
SRX 1167, 15 October 1942, TNA, WO 208/4161.

498.
SRX 1802, 24 June 1943, TNA, WO 208/4163.

499.
SRA 3430, 23 December 1942, TNA, WO 208/4128.

500.
SRA 3452, 29 December 1942, TNA, WO 208/4128.

501.
American sociologist Leon Festinger and colleagues illustrated their theory of cognitive dissonance with the example of an American religious sect, whose members sold all their possessions and assembled atop a mountain because they expected the end of the world and viewed themselves as the chosen ones. When the apocalypse did not happen, the sect members suffered cognitive dissonance. Festinger and his colleagues interviewed them and found that they did not doubt the correctness of their beliefs. Instead they interpreted their disappointed expectations as a further divine test of their faith. The theory proposes that people always try to square reality with their beliefs so as to minimize dissonance. This can happen in two ways. Either expectations can be made to fit the facts, or the facts can be interpreted so as to fit expectations. See Leon Festinger, Henry W. Riecken, and Stanley Schachter,
When Prophecy Fails
(Minneapolis: HarperTorchbooks, 1956).

502.
SRA 4166, 7 July 1943, TNA, WO 208/4130.

503.
SRA 3795, 12 March 1943, TNA, WO 208/4129.

504.
SRGG 216, 12 July 1943, TNA, WO 208/4165.

505.
SRA 3660, 9 February 1943, TNA, WO 208/4129.

506.
SRA 3781, 7 March 1941, TNA, WO 208/4129.

507.
SRM 1090, 29 November 1944, TNA, WO 208/4139.

508.
SRGG 250, 20 July 1943, TNA, WO 208/4165.

509.
SRA 4246, 3 August 1943, TNA, WO 208/4130.

510.
SRA 3620, 1 February 1943, TNA, WO 208/4129.

511.
SRA 2702, 28 June 1942, TNA, WO 208/4126.

512.
SRM 477, 14 February 1944, TNA, WO 208/4138.

513.
Ibid.

514.
SRA 5610, 7 September 1944, TNA, WO 208/4134.

515.
SRM 672, 21 July 1944, TNA, WO 208/4138.

516.
SRGG 1234 (C), 20 May 1945, TNA, WO 208/4170.

517.
SRGG 1176 (C), 2 May 1945, TNA, WO 208/4169.

518.
SRGG 408, 9 September 1943, TNA, WO 208/4166.

519.
SRM 202, 20 June 1943, TNA, WO 208/4136.

520.
SRGG 220, 12 July 1943, TNA, WO 208/4165.

521.
SRA 5084, 20 March 1944, TNA, WO 208/4133.

522.
SRM 612, 28 June 1944, TNA, WO 208/4138.

523.
SRA 5127, 3 April 1944, TNA, WO 208/4133.

524.
SRM 1262, 6 May 1945, TNA, WO 208/4140.

525.
Nicole Bögli, “Als kriegsgefangener Soldat in Fort Hunt” (Master’s thesis, University of Bern, 2010); Stéphanie Fuchs, “ ‘Ich bin kein Nazi, aber Deutscher’ ” (Master’s thesis, University of Bern, 2010).

526.
This would seem to support the conclusions in Alexander and Margarete Mitscherlich’s book
Die Unfähigkeit zu trauern
. Germans do in fact seem to have loved their Führer, and a thorough reevaluation of the history of the Third Reich and its crimes would have required Germans to grieve for the lost object of their affections.

527.
SRM 468, 2 February 1944, TNA, WO 208/4137.

528.
SRA 3963, 23 April 1943, TNA, WO 208/4130.

529.
SRA 3540, 12 January 1943, TNA, WO 208/4129.

530.
SRA 1008, 11 December 1940, TNA, WO 208/4122: “That is what I fail to understand. I, too, was in the Hitler Youth and fought. And it was a good idea too. No one can say anything against it. But there were things that were unnecessary like cutting off all the Jews.”

531.
SRA 1259, 8 February 1941, TNA, WO 208/4123: “The Jews have systematically stirred people up against Germany. In Poland too. Anyway, who are the Poles? They’re at such a low level of culture. You can’t compare them with Germans at all.”

532.
SRM 614, 1 July 1944, TNA, WO 208/4138.

533.
SRN 2912, 10 February 1944, TNA, WO 208/4149.

534.
SRM 1061, 27 November 1944, TNA, WO 208/4139.

535.
SRA 289, 6 August 1940, TNA, WO 208/4118.

536.
Alexander Hoerkens, “Kämpfer des Dritten Reiches? Die nationalsozialistische Durchdringung der Wehrmacht” (Master’s thesis, University of Mainz, 2009).

537.
SRA 5118, 28 March 1944, TNA, WO 208/4133.

538.
SRM 45, 10 February 1942, TNA, WO 208/4136.

539.
Heinrich von Kleist,
Über die allmähliche Verfertigung der Gedanken beim Sprechen
(Frankfurt/Main: Dielmann, 2010).

540.
SRN 151, 7 December 1940, TNA, WO 208/4141.

541.
Room Conversation, Kotschi-Graupe-Schwartze-Boscheinen, 25 February 1945, NARA, RG 164, Entry 179, Box 475.

542.
SRN 1767, 8 May 1943, TNA, WO 208/4145.

543.
Hoerkens, “Kämpfer des Dritten Reiches?”

544.
SRN 1715, 1 May 1943, TNA, WO 208/4145.

545.
SRM 832, 26 August 1944, TNA, WO 208/4139.

546.
SRM 560, 15 June 1944, TNA, WO 208/4138.

547.
SRM 584, 22 June 1944, TNA, WO 208/4138.

548.
SRA 1742, 19 May 1941, TNA, WO 208/4145.

549.
SRM 914, 20 September 1944, TNA, WO 208/4139.

550.
SRN 1505, 5 March 1943, TNA, WO 208/4145.

551.
SRN 1617, 12 April 1943, TNA, WO 208/4145.

552.
SRCMF X 61, 1 October 1944, TNA, WO 208/5513.

553.
SRCMF X 15, 27 May 1944, TNA, WO 208/5513.

554.
SRN 2471, 23 November 1943, TNA, WO 208/4148.

555.
SRM 523, 8 June 1944, TNA, WO 208/4138.

556.
Gordon Allport,
Die Natur des Vorurteils
(Cologne: Kiepenheuer & Witsch, 1971); Norbert Elias and John L. Scotson,
Etablierte und Außenseiter
(Frankfurt/Main: Suhrkamp Verlag, 1990); Henri Taijfel,
Gruppenkonflikt und Vorurteil: Entstehung und Funktion sozialer Stereotypen
(Bern: Verlag Hans Huber, 1982).

557.
For example, Aly,
Volksstaat;
Wildt,
Volksgemeinschaft
.

558.
SRGG 411, 10 September 1943, TNA, WO 208/4166.

559.
SRGG 452, 2 October 1943, TNA, WO 208/4166.

560.
SRM 745, 4 August 1944, TNA, WO 208/4238.

561.
Interrogation Report, Wilimzig–Malner, 2 August 1944, NARA, RG 165, Entry 179, Box 563. See also Wilimzig’s personal file, NARA, RG 165, Entry 179, Box 563; and Felix Römer, “Alfred Andersch abgehört: Kriegsgefangene ‘Anti-Nazi’ im amerikanischen Vernehmungslager Fort Hunt,”
VfZG
58 (2010), p. 578.

562.
Room Conversation, Mayer–Ahnelt, 5 July 1944, NARA, RG 165, Entry 179, Box 441.

563.
Room Conversation, Lange–Laemmel, 27 August 1944, NARA, RG 165, Entry 179, Box 506.

564.
SRM 711, 28 July 1944, TNA, WO 208/4138.

565.
SRM 1215, 14 February 1945, TNA, WO 208/4140.

566.
See Martin Treutlein, “Paris im August 1944,” in Welzer, Neitzel, and Gudehus, eds.,
“Der Führer.”

567.
Thomas Kühne,
Kameradschaft: Die Soldaten des nationalsozialistischen Krieges und das 20. Jahrhundert
(Gottingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2006), p. 197.

568.
SRN 97, 2 November 1940, TNA, WO 208/4141.

569.
SRN 624, 9 August 1941, TNA, WO 208/4143.

570.
“Gedanken des Oberbefehlshabers der Kriegsmarine zum Kriegsausbruch
3 September 1939,” in Werner Rahn and Gerhard Schreiber, eds.,
Kriegstagebuch der Seekriegsleitung, 1939–1945,
Teil A, Vol. 1 (Bonn: E. S. Mittler & Sohn, 1988), p. 16.

571.
An especially impressive example of this attitude is Kriegstagebuch des “Führers der Zerstörer” aus dem Jahr 1944, BA/MA, RM 54/8.

572.
On Hitler: Admiral/Führerhauptquartier GKdos 2877/44, 6 August 1944, BA-MA, RM 7/137; on Goebbels: Elke Fröhlich, ed.,
Tagebücher von Joseph Goebbels: Sämtliche Fragmente,
Vols. 1–15 (28 February 1945) (London: Muenchen, 1987–98), p. 383.

573.
Room Conversation, Neumann–Tschernett–Petzelmayer, 13 June 1944, NARA, RG 165, Entry 179, Box 521.

574.
HDv 2, Abschnitt 9, p. 53, cited in BA/MA, RS 4/1446. We owe this reference to Peter Lieb, Sandhurst.

575.
“I swear by God this sacred oath that I will show absolute obedience to the leader of the German Empire and people,
Adolf Hitler,
the supreme commander of the Wehrmacht, and am prepared as a courageous soldier to give my life at all times for this oath.”

576.
Cited in Klaus Reinhardt,
Die Wende vor Moskau: Das Scheitern der Strategie Hitlers im Winter 1941/42
(Stuttgart: Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, 1972), p. 220.

577.
OKW/WFSt, Abt. L, No. 442277/41 gKdos Chefs., 26 December 1941, cited in Hürter,
Hitlers Heerführer,
p. 327, FN 243.

578.
Ibid., p. 332.

579.
Ibid., p. 344.

580.
OKW/WFSt/Op No. 004059/42 g.K. v. 3 November 1942, BA/MA, RH 19 VIII/34, S. 171 f.

581.
Karl-Günter Zelle,
Hitlers zweifelnde Elite
(Paderborn: Schoeningh Verlag, 2010), pp. 28–32.

582.
KTB OKW, Vol. 3, p. 465.

583.
POW officers Werner Heuer and Adolf Hempel agreed in conversation that the command to fight to the last man should not be taken literally. Room Conversation, Heuer–Hempel, 26 October 1944, NARA, RG 165, Entry 179, Box 484.

584.
SRGG 844, 24 February 1944, TNA, WO 208/4168.

585.
SRX 1798, 1799, 23 June 1943; SRX 1806, 24 June 1943, TNA, WO 208/4163. See also SRGG 252, 18 July 1943, TNA, WO 208/4165.

586.
Fröhlich, ed.,
Tagebücher von Joseph Goebbels,
29 June 1944, p. 567.

587.
See Horst Boog, Gerhard Krebs, and Detlef Vogel, eds.,
Das Deutsche Reich und der Zweite Weltkrieg,
Vol. 7 (Stuttgart: Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, 2001), p. 463, FN 42. See also Nikolaus Meier, “Warum Krieg? Die Sinndeutung des Krieges in der deutschen Militärelite, 1871–1945” (Ph.D. dissertation, University of Zurich, 2010), pp. 297–304.

588.
Boog, Krebs, and Vogel, eds.
Das Deutsche Reich,
Vol. 7, p. 469.

589.
Hans-Günther Kluge to Hitler, 21 July 1944, BA-MA, RH 19 IX/8.

590.
John Zimmermann,
Pflicht zum Untergang: Die deutsche Kriegführung im Westen des Reiches, 1944/45
(Paderborn: Schoeningh Verlag, 2009).

591.
Ibid., esp. pp. 282–323.

592.
SRX 1965, 9 July 1944, TNA, WO 208/4164

593.
The situation was the same on the Eastern and Western fronts. On 30 June 1941 some two hundred men from the Army Group South were captured and killed by Russian soldiers. Korpstagesbefehl KG III, AK, 3 July 1941; BA/MA, RH 27—14/2.

594.
SRM 521, 8 June 1944, TNA, WO 208/4138. Gundlach directed the combat academy of the 716th Infantry Division, which offered training for noncommissioned officers. Little is known about him, but he must have been an infantry officer with combat experience. An account of the battle from the perspective of Private Josef Häger is contained in Cornelius Ryan,
Der längste Tag: Normandie: 6. Juni 1944
(Frankfurt/Main: Heyne, 1976), pp. 190–93.